Optimizations?

Hey, i've been noticing that people with notably worse systems than mine are out scoring me in 3DMark05....i saw a system with:
Intel 3.0
1 GB RAM
and 6600

and they're scoring up in the 6,000.....

where my comp:

Intel dual core 2.8
1 GIG RAM
256MB 6800...

is scoring in low 4,000's.......do you guys have any idea how they do this without overclocking? their, clock speeds seem normal when they do it, and when i try to overclokc my games always crash after like 20 mins of playing.... do you know wat they're doing? and is it possible to get that preformance on my cmop?

 

the type of ram and its configuration could very well cause that difference, ex: dual channel vs single channel, 4x256 vs 2x512 vx 1x1gig. As far as overclocking goes, if your games are crashing then you have definitely overheated or overclocked past its stable level. Start at stock speeds and slowly move up in small increments, testing stability as you go. It may take a while but the result is well worth it.

 

Also try any driver updates for video cards, and system board

 

does it really matter? if you can play your games without a hitch and it looks good to you, then so be it.

 

remember that dual core doesn't help with gaming (unless your like me and run virtual PC in the background while playing games). As far as optimization, make sure that no background processes running (especially anti-virus), defrag, etc. There is a document that tells you how set up a test system that might help. I can't check up on it cause I'm having trouble accessing the site.